Today in Digital Marketing - There's Nothing New About Meta's "New" Ad Terms

Starting point is 00:00:00 It's Tuesday, October 25th. Today, don't believe the hype. There's nothing new in Meta's new ad terms. Also, why are so many Shopify stores closing? Zuckerberg under fire for his Metaverse vision. Is it already too late for BeReal? Amazon adds a new payment option. And now you can automate your IP claims.

Starting point is 00:00:21 I'm Todd Maffin. Here's what you missed today in digital marketing. It has been a wild ride on the digital marketing side of Twitter today. Meta published its forthcoming Terms of Service for its ads platform. You may have seen this as a little banner on the top of your ad account. Or considering they're always jamming stuff up there, you may not have even seen it at all. Regardless, it is surprisingly a somewhat short document. Not at all the 90-page behemoths that we usually see from tech companies.

Starting point is 00:00:54 Much of the Twitter chatter today has come from people pulling chunks from the terms and conditions and expressing horror, shock, and surprise. But we have done a word-by-word comparison of the old and new document. And, other replacing Facebook with meta and a couple of small clarification changes, there's virtually no difference between the one currently in place and this new one due to go in effect in January. That said, you may not be completely aware of what's in this thing. So some highlights. And again, this is from both the upcoming and the current terms that you are under. Obviously, there's lots of language about them not guaranteeing your ad will reach its intended target or achieve the outcome you want. And of course, they can reject or remove your ad for any reason that they want. There are a couple of more interesting terms.

Starting point is 00:01:36 When you place an ad campaign, they have the right to get your business credit report or your personal report from a credit bureau. Also, if you cancel an ad campaign order, that campaign could still run for up to 24 hours after you cancel it. And Meta says, if that happens, you are still on the hook for those costs, even if you've canceled. The terms give them the right to charge 1% interest per month on any past due amounts.

Starting point is 00:02:01 Here's a fun one, quote, we will determine the size, placement, and positioning of your ads, unquote, which is a little frustrating for those control freaks among us, but this is just meta being drunk on its machine learning based distribution. And my favorite is this, you will not make public statements about your relationship with Facebook or the Facebook products without our prior written permission. So I guess whining about ad performance on Twitter is done, right? Anyway, like I said, even all those were part of the current terms that you are under. The new terms start on January 3rd.

Starting point is 00:02:38 Well, this is a little depressing. The Canadian news organization The Globe and Mail has done an analysis of Shopify stores and found that two out of three Shopify stores die within one year. The Globe examined data from more than five million online stores that used Shopify's tech and how long they used the platform. The study found that stores that opened in 2021 lasted on average just 143 days. Compare that to 2019 where that number was 220 days. In the past, Shopify has not disclosed customer survival or retention data.

Starting point is 00:03:14 It's also unclear what percentage of losses were due to overall failures versus defections. Failure, though, seems to be the leading cause. However, merchants with Shopify Plus accounts had a substantially higher survival rate. The analysis found that on Shopify Plus, the average survival rate from 2019 to 2021 was 646 days, more than twice as long as customer survival rate is significantly lower than its rivals, which, as The Globe points out, raises questions about how it can maintain its long-term dominance in the crowded e-commerce industry. Which platforms are its merchants migrating to? The biggest beneficiary of Shopify's defection is WooCommerce, followed by Custom Cart, Wix, and then Square.

Starting point is 00:04:09 And yes, some of these numbers are attributable to the e-commerce slowdown, but that doesn't explain why Shopify underperforms its rivals. Incidentally, many Shopify stores were down today because of a pretty widespread bug. The company says it has rolled out a fix and should be restabilizing soon. Well, even Meta's investors are losing confidence in the Metaverse, and one shareholder has written an open letter to Mark Zuckerberg calling him out. The letter, titled Time to Get Fit, was published by the CEO of Altimeter Capital, which owns hundreds of millions of Meta shares. In the letter, he accuses Meta of drifting into the land of excess with, quote, too many people, too many ideas, too little urgency, unquote. He also claims the company's focus on the metaverse

Starting point is 00:04:51 distracted it from focusing on its core business, which is making a profit, unlike Reality Labs. Quoting the CEO, in addition, people are confused by what the metaverse even means. If the company were investing one or two billion dollars per year into this project, then that confusion might not even be a problem. You would simply do research and development quietly, and investors would focus on the core business and the breakthroughs in AI. Instead, the company has announced investments of $10 to $15 billion per year into a metaverse project that may take 10 years to yield results, an estimated $100 billion plus investment in an unknown future is supersized and terrifying even by Silicon Valley standards, unquote. Finally, the letter recommended a slew of changes in order for Meta to get its mojo back, including

Starting point is 00:05:39 slashing headcount by at least 20%, cutting annual capital spending by at least $5 billion, and limiting the company's investment in reality labs to no more than $5 billion a year. Meta had no comment on the letter. Will Be Real soon be gone without ads? Digiday has an interesting piece up today about how the new social media app could face challenges when it comes to gaining the attention of digital marketers. Several marketers report staying away from the platform until it offers advertising opportunities. Unless Be Real moves quickly to finally deliver what marketers want, the looming global recession could freeze experimental ad dollars,

Starting point is 00:06:24 meaning it could be too late for BeReal. With its unique premise, the app was likely to pique marketers' interest as an up-and-coming channel. There are some brands dipping their toes in the water, but this early interest won't lead to long-term monetization. The piece points out that if advertising is on the cards, which recent reports suggest, then BeReal has a short window of opportunity to get an ads business

Starting point is 00:06:46 up and running. If it dithers too long, one of its larger competitors, like TikTok, may jump in. But even if ads come to BeReal, they wouldn't necessarily be an immediate win. The piece added that during recessions, marketers tend to turn to platforms that offer guaranteed ROI to stretch their budgets. Brands need time to test new platforms before going in with their ad dollars. In this case, there's not much time to experiment with anything new. It's the season for new styles, and you love to shop for jackets and boots. So when you do, always make sure you get cash back from Rakuten. And it's not just clothing and shoes.

Starting point is 00:07:29 You can get cash back from over 750 stores on electronics, holiday travel, home decor, and more. It's super easy. And before you buy anything, always go to Rakuten first. Join free at Rakuten.ca. Start shopping and get your cash back sent to you by check or PayPal. Get the Rakuten app or join at Rakuten.ca. R-A-K-U-T-E-N dot C-A. Do you have business insurance? If not, how would you pay to recover from a cyber attack, fire damage, theft, or a lawsuit? No business or profession is risk-free.

Starting point is 00:08:04 Without insurance, your assets are at risk from major financial losses, data breaches, and natural disasters. Get customized coverage today starting at $19 per month at zensurance.com. Be protected. Be Zen. The biggest e-commerce company in the world is beefing up its payment options ahead of the holiday shopping season. Amazon announced today that it will now let customers pay with Venmo at checkout. The feature will begin rolling out to select customers starting today before launching to all U.S. users by Black Friday next month. Users will need to add their Venmo account before they can make payments. Here's how it'll work.

Starting point is 00:08:40 First, during checkout, users can select a payment method and then add a Venmo account. This will redirect them to the Venmo app where they can complete the authentication. Users can also choose Venmo to be their default payment method for Amazon purchases on that screen. Customers can pay with Venmo on Amazon using their Venmo balance, a linked bank account, or an eligible debit card. Meta today announced it's launching a new reporting API for intellectual property, which lets rights holders report content they believe violates their intellectual property rights. The tool integrates with the platform's Graph API and lets authorized API users more effectively fill out the same fields that exist in the IP reporting forms in a secure and streamlined way. Meta also added new features

Starting point is 00:09:31 to its brand rights protection tool, including automated takedowns, which let eligible brands have some of their takedown requests automatically approved, an allow list, where rights holders can upload a list of Facebook pages and Instagram accounts that are owned or authorized to improve the accuracy of search results and enforcement. And automated recommendations, where the platform will automatically recommend ads, commerce listings, Facebook pages, and Instagram accounts for brands to review, based on previous reports, allow lists, and reference images. Meta has also added updates to search functionality like search by image, search by using Facebook and Instagram URLs or IDs, as well as the ability to search and report Facebook groups, Facebook pages, Facebook profiles, Instagram accounts, and posts on both Facebook and Instagram.

Starting point is 00:10:26 A standalone reporting option was also added for business impersonation. This option lets brands report potentially infringing ads, Facebook pages, and Instagram accounts for impersonation or for counterfeit, trademark, or copyright infringement. And finally, Meta has added a new Insights dashboard that will show the last 90 days of actions taken from reports submitted in Brands Rights Protection. So does this voice sound familiar? Amber Heard's sister took the stand at Johnny Depp's libel trial.

Starting point is 00:10:55 We've talked about this before, and sometimes it's just too much information. If you spend any time on TikTok, you may recognize that voice. And the mystery behind TikTok's text-to-speech voice has been solved. And it's a Canadian. What I love most about this story is that the voice of TikTok didn't even know how to use TikTok. Kat Callahan is the woman behind the voice. And after over a year of being hounded by her fans at her local radio station, she decided to confess. Yes, she is the voice.

Starting point is 00:11:29 And she decided the best way to reveal this was that she would do a TikTok video, but she'd never actually posted on TikTok before. And so she didn't realize you had to publish a video before saving it. So she posted it, saved it, and boom, within 48 hours, had over 20 million views. And with any viral videos, haters gonna hate. The next day, she made a follow-up video addressing some questions from the trolls, and then ended the video by doing what most people had been asking her to do, the voice. Yes, I'm the TikTok text-to-speech girl. My name is Kat.

Starting point is 00:12:01 I work with TikTok on TTS and other projects. I love working with TikToks. So there you have it. I'm telling you, we Canadians are taking over the world. Sorry. And finally, a quick update to a story that we reported on a week ago. It came from a Bloomberg report that Biden officials were considering national security reviews of Elon Musk's forthcoming Twitter deal. But as of yesterday, the White House says there is no investigation into the purchase of the platform and that those reports were, quote, not true, unquote. Musk replied to the news on Twitter with a rolling rolling on the floor laughing emoji. Remember, you can get this podcast as a daily email newsletter too, complete with images, charts, related videos,

Starting point is 00:12:54 and links to dive deeper. And there's a free tier. You'll get an issue every Friday on that tier. Newsletter comes out about an hour before the podcast drops. Just go to todayindigital.com slash newsletter to sign up or tap the link in the show notes. Also, why are you not in our Slack yet?

Starting point is 00:13:10 We are almost at a thousand members all sharing advice, getting help. You get an inside peek as to what's coming up in each day's episode. There's even a channel you can promote yourself in. It's free to join. Just tap the link in the show notes or go to todayindigital.com slash slack. Thanks for listening. I don't mind it at all. You're probably sick of my voice. I'm sick of my voice. I don't know if that'll work, but there you go. It's the season for new styles, and you love to shop for jackets and boots.

Starting point is 00:14:11 So when you do, always make sure you get cash back from Rakuten. And it's not just clothing and shoes. You can get cash back from over 750 stores on electronics, holiday travel, home decor, and more. It's super easy. And before you buy anything, always go to Rakuten first. Join free at rakuten.ca. Start shopping and get your cash back sent to you by check or PayPal. Get the Rakuten app or join at rakuten.ca. R-A-K-U-T-E-N.ca.

Today in Digital Marketing - There's Nothing New About Meta's "New" Ad Terms

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